I certainly don't want to harm the fish. Would doing a large volume water change keep the cycle going and at the same time keep the fish from dying? I did an ammonia test this morning and the result was .50 ppm. I'm not too sure what that means. The research I did revealed that the ammonia level should/would peak, then begin to drop, and likewise with the nitrite. So, with the .50 ppm ammonia reading, should I do a water change now, or would that interrupt the cycle?

Large water changes are your best friend right now.

It will not interrupt the cycle and at the same time it will remove the buildup of harmful ammonia. You'll want to do these as needed. As soon as there is any reading at all of ammonia on your test kit, do a water change and test again after a few hours.

You are not going to remove all of the amonia, you are just diluting it. If you do a 50% water change, you will then have about half as much amonia in the same amount of water, making it a little less toxic. Your not cycling so the amonia breaks up, but so the bacteria gets established which breaks up the amonia._________________My tanks
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